writing

Handwritten love letters are underrated.

“Dear Miss Saucy ... I hereby order you to give me as many kisses and as many hours of your company as I shall please to demand.”

The agency needs help deciphering the flowing penmanship of the past.

The terms are more literal than you might have assumed.

Here's how Stieg Larsson's modern classic came to be.

A whole lot of foreshadowing in these pages.

How many have you come across?

In 1985, Chief Wiley went for a swim and was never seen or heard from again. What he left behind shocked his community.

Bram Stoker's bibliography just got richer.

The tale was composed as Stoker was working on his iconic vampire.

Plus, a simple trick that will help you identify most true cases of the passive voice. (Hint: It involves zombies.)

R.L. Stine—the father of children’s horror lit.

Series like R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps introduced '90s kids to horror at a young age.

“Once upon a midnight dreary” begins “The Raven,” setting the mood for one of the most recognizable poems written in English.

‘Severance’ author Ling Ma is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow; here are some other famous authors who were awarded the grants.

Looks like she's reading a novel, not a novella.

As Stephen King once said, novellas are “too long to be short and too short to be really long.”

Washington Irving, the Knicks' biggest fan.

‘Knickerbocker’ has many meanings. Without Washington Irving, it would likely only have one.

Put your spelling skills to the test.

The Song of Fire and Ice author voices his concerns about AI.

George R. R. Martin has a lot to say about the rise of AI in the arts.

Just a few punctuation marks that don’t get nearly enough usage.

Because sometimes, periods, commas, colons, semi-colons, dashes, hyphens, apostrophes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, brackets, parentheses, braces, and ellipses won't do.

The first edition of ‘Black Beauty,’ published 1877.

Anna Sewell’s 19th-century novel about a horse named Black Beauty put the spotlight on animal welfare.

Authors like Dorothy Allison, David Wojnarowicz, and T Kira Madden have made tremendous contributions to literature.

Celebrate the many contributions to literature that LGBTQ+ authors have made with these great reads by Danez Smith, Dorothy Allison, Alexander Chee, Alice Walker, and more.

“All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor.”

The poem “The Rainbow Bridge” has long comforted animal lovers who are mourning a pet. But for decades, its author remained a mystery.

After journaling your feelings, try shredding them.

Instead of anger management classes, all you may need is a pen, some paper, and a trash can.

When “Midnight’s Children” was released in 1981, The New York Times pronounced that “the literary map of India is about to be redrawn.” Here’s what you should know about the novel that introduced the authorial voice of Salman Rushdie.

The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California.

When readers failed to warm to a new 'Peanuts' character, Charles Schulz erased her. Permanently.

The cover of Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women.’

“Little Women” is one of the world's most beloved novels—but Louisa May Alcott only wrote it to help her father get a publishing contract.

The abbreviations are widely understood as “morning” and “afternoon,” but what do the Latin translations actually mean?

Dear Valentine: A Brief History of Great Love Letters

The National Archives Is Looking for Volunteers With a “Superpower”: Reading Cursive

The Surprisingly Literal Reason We Call Letters “Uppercase” and “Lowercase”

8 Fascinating Facts About ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’

7 Obscure Literary Devices

Mel Wiley, the Ohio Police Chief Who May Have Authored His Own Demise

A Long-Lost Short Story by ‘Dracula’ Author Bram Stoker Has Been Rediscovered After 130 Years

The Great Passive Voice Panic: Why Everyone (Even Grammar Experts) Gets It Wrong

It Came From the Kid Lit Section: Remembering the Children’s Horror Boom of the 1990s

9 Facts About Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”

5 Famous Authors Who Were Awarded MacArthur “Genius” Grants

Novella vs. Short Story: What’s the Difference?

The Disappearance of Diedrich Knickerbocker: How Washington Irving’s Clever Hoax Named the New York Knicks

Can You Choose the Correct Version of these Commonly Misspelled Words?

George R.R. Martin Shares His Stance on AI Amid Author’s Guild Lawsuit

13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using

How ‘Black Beauty’ Changed the World For Horses

26 Amazing Books by LGBTQ+ Authors You Should Add to Your Bookshelf

“The Rainbow Bridge”: The Emotional—and Once-Lost—History of the Popular Pet Memorial Poem

Having Anger Issues? Try “Shredding” Your Feelings

10 Fascinating Facts About Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’

Charlotte Braun, the ‘Peanuts’ Character Who Met a Gruesome End

11 Fascinating Facts About Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’

What Do A.M. and P.M. Stand For?